In a conventional merchant-consumer financial transaction, the user provides actual debit or credit card account information to the merchant by way of swiping the actual card, entering the actual card account number, scanning a code comprising the actual card account number, or otherwise transmitting the actual card account number to the merchant system. The merchant system's point of sale terminal or online payment process engine submits a payment request to the issuer of the account through the corresponding card network. If funds are available, the issuer sends an authorization code to the merchant system to signal approval of the payment transaction. The payment process involves a single payment request generated and submitted by the merchant system and comprising the user's actual account number. The issuer receives the payment request from the merchant's system and communicates the authorization to the merchant's system in real-time.